Avast blocking forums as a phishing site.

[Bionic_Flea]

About an hour ago, Avast started blocking the forums completely as a phishing site.  Even adding https://forums.homecomingservers.com to the whitelist on my end still blocks it.  The only way I was able to get here was to turn off the Avast online security extension in Firefox.  I checked Chrome to see if it was a Firefox thing, but I was getting blocked there too.

 

Anything you guys can do on your end to fix the site's reputation with Avast?  Any suggestions for me?

Edited June 12, 2021 by Bionic_Flea

[Katharos]

Avast is also doing this to me on chrome, and the only workaround I found is the same one Flea mentioned. 

[PainX]

Avast remember reading about them claiming phishing falsely alot on forums Google was one of the phishing sites mentioned so was Gov.uk which is aparently exactly what the name suggests so it seems they get around when it comes to this

[JAMMan0000]

Yep same thing happening to me on Chrome as well. I just submitted feedback to Avast asking them to check the basis for this being flagged as a phishing site and that I was pretty confident it was not.

Edited June 13, 2021 by JAMMan0000

[Techwright]

  On 6/12/2021 at 10:19 PM, PainX said:

Avast remember reading about them claiming phishing falsely alot on forums Google was one of the phishing sites mentioned so was Gov.uk which is aparently exactly what the name suggests so it seems they get around when it comes to this

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I knew Malwarebytes was doing this, but was unaware Avast was.

 

Started having the same problem.  Checked the forums, went to dinner in town, came back and found the forums flagged as a phishing site.  Firefox and Chrome both fighting it (actually Avast) and had to enter via Edge (shudder).

 

Wondering why this just started, as I've had the same setup for years without issue.   My big concern was that something is/was happening to Homecoming like what happened to one of the other emulators.

[PainX]

dunno just run the basics have malwarebytes but just the free scanner just need to know what im infected with not to worried no naked photo's everything running 2 factor frankly windows updates worry me more worst virus there is

[RageusQuitus2]

finally after years of reporting homecomming to avast my evil plan has come to fruition.  Watch in anger as Avast blocks your puny website from your ridiculous playerbase.  Tremble in fear as you are unable to return your precious community website to its prior state. 

 

Fyi this was a joke 😃

Edited June 14, 2021 by RageusQuitus2

[Techwright]

  On 6/12/2021 at 7:50 PM, Bionic_Flea said:

About an hour ago, Avast started blocking the forums completely as a phishing site.  Even adding https://forums.homecomingservers.com to the whitelist on my end still blocks it.  The only way I was able to get here was to turn off the Avast online security extension in Firefox.  I checked Chrome to see if it was a Firefox thing, but I was getting blocked there too.

 

Anything you guys can do on your end to fix the site's reputation with Avast?  Any suggestions for me?

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I'll add a note to say that Microsoft Edge updated overnight and now it is not displaying the forums, where it was last night.  Avast web app is not on Edge as I almost never use that browser.  I checked for the app and none were there.  So I'm wondering if Avast is sneaky or if Edge is just parroting them.

 

I've lived at peace with Avast for 13 years, but blocking one of my 20-25 most accessed websites on a false positive, especially without recourse to correct it, is a breaker.  Guess it is time to find a 2021 successor.

[Bionic_Flea]

Hmmm . . . maybe it's Windows in conjunction with Avast?  I just updated my Windows yesterday, not long before the problem started.

[starro]

Starro commands you to discontinue Avast and apply a starfish over your mammal head.  All is fine when you are one with  Starro.

I have had the same with avast unhelpful messaging 

Edited June 13, 2021 by starro
Fixed message

[Haijinx]

AVG started doing this for me today.

[ForeverLaxx]

Huh. I thought for sure I was going to be alone with this problem. Setting the site to the exceptions list didn't help, turning off the "shields" temporarily also did not help. Updating Avast directly did not help. The only thing that let me connect was removing Avast's extension in Firefox that rated pages as "safe" or not. I did report the problem to Avast directly as a False Positive, but I have a feeling that's going to amount to nothing.

 

I don't really need Avast telling me what pages are or are not safe anyway, but when the site works perfectly fine in the morning but gets blocked in the evening arbitrarily, then I really don't need Avast trying to hold my hand.

[Hyperstrike]

  On 6/13/2021 at 3:27 PM, Haijinx said:

AVG started doing this for me today.

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AVG is owned by Avast.

They're now, more or less, the same product under the hood.

[Bionic_Flea]

  On 6/13/2021 at 4:21 PM, Hyperstrike said:

AVG is owned by Avast.

They're now, more or less, the same product under the hood.

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Hey Hyper, you're a professional techy-type person, do you have any suggestions or advice other than disable or get rid of Avast?

[Cipher]

Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I've gone ahead and filed a false positive report with Avast which should hopefully get this problem resolved within a few days. Fortunately, and rather strangely, none of our domains are actually coming up on any blacklists or show as being flagged by any commercial anti-virus programs (tested through a few services incl. VirusTotal). I'm assuming that Avast flagging the site is too recent to show up on these services, so hopefully it'll just be one false positive report and we're good to go.

[Haijinx]

  On 6/13/2021 at 6:10 PM, Bionic_Flea said:

Hey Hyper, you're a professional techy-type person, do you have any suggestions or advice other than disable or get rid of Avast?

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For AVG I just added Forums.homecomingservers.com as an exception and it works fine now.

[JnEricsonx]

  On 6/13/2021 at 3:27 PM, Haijinx said:

AVG started doing this for me today.

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Likewise, I just turned it off for the moment, so....wth?

[JnEricsonx]

  On 6/13/2021 at 6:34 PM, Haijinx said:

 

For AVG I just added Forums.homecomingservers.com as an exception and it works fine now.

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So how do I do that?

[Haijinx]

  On 6/13/2021 at 9:54 PM, JnEricsonx said:

So how do I do that?

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Open AVG

 

Click on the "MENU" portion in the top right

Click the "Settings" / Gear Icon (two down)

Leave it on General 

4 choices down there is the choice "Exceptions" click that 

There is a Green button "Add Exception" click that

Then put the address in 

[Hyperstrike]

  On 6/13/2021 at 10:21 PM, Haijinx said:

 

Open AVG

 

Click on the "MENU" portion in the top right

Click the "Settings" / Gear Icon (two down)

Leave it on General 

4 choices down there is the choice "Exceptions" click that 

There is a Green button "Add Exception" click that

Then put the address in 

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This pretty much sums it up.

As I said, Avast is virtually IDENTICAL now.

So the same instructions work THERE too.

Edited June 13, 2021 by Hyperstrike

[JnEricsonx]

That worked.  I'm wonder what the hell caused this.  

[Bionic_Flea]

I tried adding an exception last night and again just now on Avast.  Still gets blocked.

[Hyperstrike]

  On 6/14/2021 at 12:05 AM, JnEricsonx said:

That worked.  I'm wonder what the hell caused this.  

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Remember, antivirus solutions are ENTIRELY reactionary.  They don't detect ANYTHING without massive, byzantine "definition" files.

And on occasion, perfectly innocuous things happen to resemble malicious code JUST enough to trip one of these definitions.

[Naomi]

  On 6/14/2021 at 3:56 AM, Hyperstrike said:

Remember, antivirus solutions are ENTIRELY reactionary.  They don't detect ANYTHING without massive, byzantine "definition" files.

And on occasion, perfectly innocuous things happen to resemble malicious code JUST enough to trip one of these definitions.

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Probably the occasional false positives that are associated with the domain from the launcher downloading files from it.

[Bionic_Flea]

It seems to be working fine now.  Thanks everyone!